When Peter Buffett was in his twenties he went to ask his dad for a loan to
help him with his music career. His father Warren was well on his way to
becoming one of the richest men in the world, but he is renowned for his
parsimony and his son discovered that he wouldn’t make exceptions for his
own family.

“My sister famously went and asked for a loan to remodel the kitchen and my
dad said: ‘Go to the bank.’ He did it again,” the younger Buffett says of
his own meeting. Now, more than a quarter of